1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing apparatus such as a digital multifunction peripheral, a method of processing priority reservation therefor, and a storage medium for storing a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an priority reservation service has been known as a technique for a user to use a digital multifunction peripheral by priority during a particular time period (hereinafter, such use is just referred to as “exclusive use”). In the exclusive reservation service, a user reserves a print job for a digital multifunction peripheral, so that the user can exclusively use the digital multifunction peripheral for the reserved job by priority during a particular time period (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-242460, for example).
In the above exclusive reservation service, a single digital multifunction peripheral performs priority operation of job processing or refusal of job processing by other users. In a printing system comprising a plurality of conventional digital multifunction peripherals that provide such exclusive reservation services, the respective digital multifunction peripherals accept exclusive reservation services independently.
The exclusive reservation service by the above conventional digital multifunction peripheral can improve convenience for a user who performs a large amount of jobs for printing. However, it has a problem in that it does not satisfy convenience for a user who irregularly prints a small amount of jobs for a few pages.
In other words, in the above conventional printing system, peripherals do not cooperate in an exclusive reservation of a digital multifunction peripheral. Because of this, a user who performs a large amount of jobs for printing may set an exclusive reservation for all digital multifunction peripherals during a particular time period to secure a time frame for his/her exclusive use. On the other hand, a general user who irregularly performs printing of a small amount of jobs does not use an exclusive reservation service at all, therefore the user would use a digital multifunction peripheral for which an exclusive reservation is not set. However, if an exclusive reservation is set for all digital multifunction peripherals, such a general user can use no digital multifunction peripheral during that time period.